Yves Behar: Creating Objects That Tell Stories

Yves Behar explains to us how design has changed from merely slapping on a “skin” to cover the unattractive product, to something with value and a story behind it; something which is only achieved by designing a product from the inside-out. As a young aspiring designer, I found this video highly inspirational and informative about the importance to design a product with values and a story.

I found Behar’s complete transformation of the simple commercial water bottle to his own version; Y Water to be amazing and highly influential. The design has so many layers, in that it is a healthy drink served in a unique, bright and ergonomically designed bottle, which can be collected and connected together to create a variety of different shapes; much like children’s building blocks. The name was inspired from its “Y” shape the bottle displayed when turned upside down, also a word asked a lot by children, this gives the product its value with having a story and meaning behind the name.

Behar also spoke about his contribution to the design of the $100 laptop for the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) series. I found this product to be at the heart of his notion of design with value and a story as it was an initiative to supply children in developing countries with a laptop so they were able to get a decent education to secure their future. The story of how the designers fought with manufacturers and suppliers and never gave up on the original design is inspiring to me as a young designer. As it was their persistence that gave these kids a full opportunity at a proper education without disadvantaging them by losing half the design features due to manufacturing or supply problems.

Behar ended his discussion with very powerful words of hopefully changing the world through the values in our designs and influences on larger companies around the world, something we young designers have to look up to in the future.

Image: http://ifitshipitshere.blogspot.com/2009/02/its-fast-its-furious-its-earth-friendly.html

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGn8F4j6pH8